More wedded bliss from Shirley Erena Murray, with the text set to Ralph Vaughn William’s DOWN APNEY.
Text and sheet music are available from Hope Publishing. She marries the down to earth picture of a wedding with the grand setting beautifully.
GA has no chords but Together In Song came to the rescue. These days for my fake BIAB organ I get the chords if I can and take the bass notes of the keyboard arrangement. It still sounds like BIAB.
This doesn’t:
Church was at maximum allowed capacity this morning with social distancing in place. Things are pretty good Covid wise in Australia with no community spread in all states except Victoria, where numbers are dropping to single digits some days.
Next week’s music liturgy selection are:
Entrance: Christ be Our Light (Farrell) AOV 2/3
Psalm 22 (McKenna)
I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
Gifts: The Cry of the Poor (Foley) AOV 1/83
Communion: Table of Plenty (Schutte) AOV 2/20
Thanksgiving: Shepherd Me O God (Haugen) AOV 1/33
Recessional: City of God (Schutte) AO)V 1/57
It seems a lot of the songs I don’t know already from GA have a text by Shirley Erena Murray. She wrote this wedding song that is set to BUNESSAN. It is a great idea to use a familiar hymn tune to encourage participation at a liturgy where people of all faiths and none will attend, like a wedding. Most people will recognise this tune quickly.
You can find the text and sheet music from the wonderful people at Hope Publications.
The last Eucharist song in Gather Australia that I haven’t already covered is this one. The text is by Deidre Browne and Kevin Lenehan. It has an ostinato refrain that can be repeated under the verse melody. Apart from the standard verses for Eucharist, there are Advent, Christmas and Lenten verses. I can see the assembly handling the refrain and leaving the verses for a cantor or choir.
The music is by Jane Wood, the general editor of GA, who does a lot of the heavy lifting with the hymn tunes in this collection.
I’ve done a backing but you’ll need GA for the words.
8/8/26
Helen asked below, “where are the verses”?
In the backing I made it’s a bit messy – the ostinato refrain just repeats and the tune for the verse plays over the top of it on alternate passes. It’s the same way most Taize chants go. It makes more sense when you have the words.
Looking back at this it is a shame that songs like this are unavailable unless you can find second hand copies of Gather Australia. Apart from the four verses below there are another seven verses for Advent, three for Christmas, three for Lent and one each for Mary, Mother of God, Epiphany, the Baptism of Jesus and the last Sundays in Ordinary Time. In my copy of GA there is even a bonus C instrument solo – all out of print and as far as I can tell unavailable to purchase in any form. I have found second hand copies of the accompaniment version at book fairs in the past (all given away, sorry) but usually all you can find a pew editions, which are at least a start. Jane Wood’s efforts in this volume should be more recognised.
The text is:
Ostinato Refrain
Taste and see God’s love for us
Taste and see God’s love for us
Taste and see God’s love for us
Taste and see God’s love.
1 I am the bread for all your hunger.
Come to me.
Come to me and drink deeply, freely.
Taste and see my love.
2 I am the hope for all your longing.
Come to me.
Come to me and trust firmly, strongly.
Taste and see my love.
3 I am the light in all your darkness.
Come to me.
Come to me and find comfort. Blessing.
Taste and see my love.
4 I am the heart of all your giving.
Come to me.
Come to me and draw strength and joy.
Taste and see my love.
Most of the songs in Gather Australia for Eucharist are well known staples of Australian Catholic life, and so I have already blogged them in the past. I haven’t come across this one that they have collected before though.
Delores Duffner wrote the text based on Christ’s statements in the Gospel of John. As delightfullly set by Rosalie Broughton in GA you are going to need a cantor for the different tunes in the verses. I’d also bring it down from G to F.
The text is in the preview at GIA here, but they use the setting by Michel Guimont.
More wonderful words from Shirley Erena Murray are found in this song for Eucharist.
Hope Publications kindly give the text here and a setting by Jane Holstein.
Gather Australia have set it to an interesting waltz tune by Margaret Thomas with a 5/4 bar thrown in that works nicely.
Most of the songs for Eucharist in Gather Australia have been covered elsewhere on this blog but this one is new to me.
The text is by Muus Jacobse and translated by Forest Ingram and David Smith and can be found here.
The very interesting and challenging setting is by David Haas. We are no longer using his music locally, which is a shame, but less of a shame than his reported treatment of women. On the other hand he has not been convicted of anything and he may well be less a villain than Donald Trump, a low bar I admit. How do you balance the loss of music that is meaningful to many against the pain it causes to people who have been harmed – I have no idea. GIA have wiped all links to David Haas but the sheet music can be purchased at sheetmusicplus.
This is a song for confirmation with a text by Tom Colvin and a tune he adapted from a Gonja folk song. It is from way back in 1969.
Hope Publications provide the text and the sheet music, although they have different chords to those given in GA. GIA have an arrangement by Rob Glover for choir, assembly, keyboard, guitar and handbells or Orff Instruments (I had to look that up).
I made backing on BIAB:
If you want to buy a MIDI file it is available at mymidiaudio.
Entrance: Sing Out Earth and Skies (Haugen) AOV 2/32
Psalm 79 (McKenna)
The vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel.
Gifts: Our Supper Invitation (Bates) AOV 1/185
Communion: Bread Broken, Wine Shared Bread (Horner) AOV 2/155
Thanksgiving: Blest Be the Lord (Schutte) AOV 1/179
Recessional: Sing to the Mountains (Dufford) AOV 1/92
While I’m not covering every last piece of liturgical music in Gather Australia, I would never pass up a baptism song with a text by Shirley Erena Murray.
The words are available from those lovely people at Hope Publishing here. They set it to Alan Pote’s GENERATION (and provide the sheet music), but GA uses BUD OF HOPE by David Dell, so I guess both tunes were written specifically for this text.
I haven’t got anymore information on this one and I’m always happy to know if people are using a song or know more about it.
I’ve made a backing for the version in Gather Australia. The first three bars are “Did you ever see a lassie?” but the tune comes into its own after that.
